Will Whitt

Christopher Weeks wrote:I'm sure if you chop'n'drop it every week, you'll eventually run the roots out of energy.

I would love to know how long that would take!

Why not use a method of smothering and blocking out sunlight by creating a thick mulch of wood chips, leaves, etc?  Anywhere from 6 inches to 12 inches will do this.

I have a bocking 14 variant so it may be different, but 6-8 inches of wood chips did nothing but slow my comfrey down and protect it from a late frost we had after our annual false spring. The leaves didn't even look weak or sickly whatsoever when they popped through! Maybe 12 inches would suffice, but I don't put anything past comfrey.

The one time I had to kill a flourishing plant, I waited until it started to wake up in spring soaked the area and put a 3 inch layer of whole, compacted damp leaves from last fall down with the intent of creating a wet enough environment to get some root rot going. I then topped the leaves with two pieces of cardboard all held down and buried in 6 inches or so of wood chips. That was two years ago and, so far, no comfrey, but I keep at least 6 inches of woodchips on top.

As so your original question about solarization, I have never done that, but I know of no reason why it wouldn't work in time. My only concern is in line with Anne's; you'll have to kill just about everything and everyone to ensure that the comfrey is also dead and gone.

Good luck obliterating one of my favorite plants!

I know this is an older post, but for those without a couple acres to truly hay! I live on a .5 acre suburban lot (though my yard is a beautiful blend of grass, clover, dead nettle, dandelions, and all sorts of stuff!) and make my own hay for my meat rabbits from my lawn using my 22 in walk behind honda lawn mower.  I just throw on my bagger and go! Once its full, I dump the clippings on a tarp on my driveway and give it a flip toward the afternoon. Once the clippings are dry, I cram as much into plastic totes and store them on a custom shelf specifically for holding the 16 totes. Any extra, I throw into trash bags as of right now. Rabbits love it and have done great this year eating only my cuttings and some pellets. Only issue is a lot of the clippings fall through their wire hay holders so I had to make small trays to catch a lot of it!

This winter was my first where I was able to make enough to last through the whole winter, but its my 3rd year doing this.

Caveat, no idea how well this will work for anything beyond rabbits!

1) Buying ALL the seeds!

2) Patience. I live in Northern Virginia and we always get a beautiful false spring (having it right now) so everything starts to wake up and I get excited and start planting things. Then come early April, we get nailed by a cold snap for a week and occasionally snow, killing a lot of what I planted since its just coming up.

3) Sticking to my garden plan. Every year, I plan out my garden in extream detail (6-in grid for a 30x30 ft garden). Come planting time, I ignore all of my planning in my joy and excitement and scatter and plant seed/transplants willy-nilly

So to summarize, I struggle with discipline and self-control! To help mitigate that, I continually expand my perennial plants and let a lot of my plants self sow. I haven't planted tomatoes, potatoes, or parsnips in 3 years

I say go for it. Worst that can happen is they say no and think you're weird.....which they probably already do if they are anything like my neighbors! I wouldn't do it though if they do say no. Be a good neighbor and respect their decision especially since it doesn't directly effect you in a negative manor. One thing that I love about people like Nicole from Living Free in Tennessee is that she expands permaculture and self-reliance beyond just her yard and is really big on building community.

You could also avoid adding more work to your plate and just go around in the dark collect all the bags of leaves the crazy normal people put out for the garbage!

Emily,

I live just outside of Warrenton, VA and love the idea of cob and other natural building!

While I don't know anyone personally, have you looked into Sigi Koko (https://buildnaturally.com/)? She is based out of Maryland and does workshops on a building project throughout PA, NY, MD, WV, and VA. While she focuses on Straw bail, she has a workshop for just about any part of natural build, including cob walls. I've done a couple workshops with her; she is a great teacher and a wonderful person! Her classes do tend to fill up very quickly (she only has a couple sections that aren't sold out) so you need to register early for the courses that interest you.

Outside of that, I too would love to lend a hand if anyone needs a hand with a build! Maybe we'll bump into each other someday Emily!

Billy

I know this is an older post, but I too fight with bermuda grass. I do have the advantage of 'only' being in zone 7 in northern VA, so it's not optimal environment but it's still bermuda grass....

While its taken me a couple years to accomplish because I didn't want to spend the money on it, I surround my garden, trees, and swales with comfrey. The roots block passage from below and the leaves shade out from above. Its not 100% effective, but it slows the grass down more than enough to easily handle the few bits that sprout in the garden. In addition to a great weed blocking boarder, you get all the amazing benefits of the comfrey!

The only problem with the comfrey is that you better like it where it is! Any roots left in the ground with sprout into a new plant. While that makes it amazing for propagating (I have about 50 plants from 10 original roots in 3 years!), it also makes it stubborn to get rid off and slightly invasive....I made the mistake the first time I took root cuttings and took them from the side facing my garden instead of my yard. ended up loosing about a foot of garden space along the one edge of the garden because of the new comfrey plants that sprouted from the remaining roots!

I'm actually trying something new this year with my potatoes. Since I was able to pick up some wire fencing for free (It's crazy what people throw away and then think I'm crazy for getting excited about it!!!), I dug out some grass, placed my seed potatoes down, threw some compost and shredded leaf mulch over them, and made a ring around them with the fence. Plan on just covering the plants with more leaf mulch and straw as they grow.

Anne, I saw that post as well and am really intrigued by it as well. I might just give that method a try as well if I have some more potatoes start to sprout. I wonder how well it would work indoors with a grow light; get some fresh spuds during the winter!